Ugh. Yeah it's only $99, but that's with a plan and the service options. That's $40 for the cheapest minutes plan, and then another $30 to just have 3GB a month of internet. That's not even including the text messaging. :/ I ended up with it saying $90 a month, and said screw it. I'd love to have the S3, but in a few more months I'm sure the price will be a lot lower.

@ibobafett: Because the data is unmetered. It is not incurred on non smartphones. Any standard postpaid primary US carrier with a subsidized smartphone and plan will cost you $80-110 per month before taxes.

This phone has a serious flaw, and Samsung is flip about consumers asking questions.

Many of us use an audio input jack to listen to internet content in our cars. We also have bluetooth to couple telephone calls to the car audio syatem. If a call comes in, the car mutes the audio input and routes the bluetooth (call audio) to the speakers. The Samsung cuts off the audio from the bluetooth, so you hear nothing from the call. If you remove the plug from the jack the call sound is then sent to the speakers via bluetooth. I don't want to pull the plug while driving to hear a caller. Defeats the safety of hands free phone use.

The HTC EVO does not have this problems. It works fine. Samsung tech support acts like their problem is "normal" and refuses to take complaints. Save your money. There are phones that work out there.

In response to Moviela, I agree that the if you have a bluetooth headset, or system in your car, the phone will not go to either of those while connected to an external audio device. Which is annoying because the mic on my headset is much better than the one on the phone when it is sitting in the center console. However, If blue tooth is turned off it will go to speaker phone and come through the car speakers just like the bluetooth would.

@shinespark: But also see if the company you work for gets a discount. Me and 3 other friends did a family plan together, and the one friend gets a 30% discount through his job. With that and the family plan discounts, we split the bill $65 a person, with unlimited everything and insurance. But Shine is right, most data-based phones will cost 90-120 per month.

@moviela: I have a Galaxy Attain and I have the same problem. I have been able to work around it by using a my Jabra BT3030 Bluetooth Head Phones as a speaker bridge. I am able to set the Head Phones to Media Audio only and leave my Bluetooth Earpiece on Phone Audio only. So when I plug my Car Stereo into the Jabra I can still Make and Answer calls with my Earpiece. I know we should not have to do that bu it is the best solution I have for now until Samsung decides to change it.

I have a Galaxy S2, running on Jelly Bean (Android 4.1). If you complain about upgrades, just do it yourself.... It's really easy. If you can watch a YouTube video, you can root and upgrade your phone.

I just ordered an S3 from Amazon yesterday, the red 16gb for $650. No contract.

The S3 is the best phone on the market. The iPhone5 wont even come close to the specs, features or performance of the S3. That is just how it is. There wont be anything with better specs until the Galaxy Note 2 comes out later this year, and its rather large for the average phone user.

@drspiffness: Contracts are a bit of a rip-off. They lure you in with cheap phones, then constantly overcharge you month after month to make up for it. I can get an unlimited data plan from cspire for $50 a month flat. No surprise bills, no mysterious charges. Only catch is I have to provide my own phone. And if I dislike the service, I just stop sending my $50. Much better than having to pay to cancel a contract.

@goldfndr: VW-Audi-Porsche use a bluetooth protocol that only handles telephone calls. It is not possible to send entertainment audio (MP3, internet stream, Mr. Microphone) through bluetooth. That is why it is necessary to connect the stereo minijack to the car's Aux In connector. We bought a unit and tried it on a number of cars with factory bluetooth solution.

@moviela: That's a flaw in the vehicle's bluetooth system, not supporting A2DP. Throw that vehicle away and get a new one, it's obviously obsolete. But maybe you can upgrade it to get a few more miles...
* for Volkswagen, get a 9w7 upgrade. Free if you were part of the class action.
* for Audi, http://www.audipartssuperstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=1166
* for Porsche... well, if you have PCM 3.1 (or later?), maybe you can apply an update to it.

@goldfndr: Thank you for your research, but marketing has trumpted engineering. VAG does not allow program audio over Bluetooth because they are in bed with Apple to force use of iProducts. The musical interface (while it can use minijack and USB connectors, it only integrates with iPod connectors for on screen display and CANbus buttons) consists of a cable for $215 dollars. The $175 Bluetooth puck added to that attaches only to the musical interface, and will not carry telephone calls. If factory Blurtooth is installed, it will not work.

@krufam96: T-Mobile prepaid has this option. You spend $100 and get 1000 minutes. Then any subsequent money you add on extends your service for a year. So if you don't use it hardly at all, the next year your phone service could cost $10. This is what I do for my grandma so she has an emergency phone. I've paid $10 a year for the last two years for her to have a cell phone.

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Not a farewell, just a forced redirect.

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Sorry

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Geez, why so negative?

You have to vote up more before you can vote down.

Don't get us wrong. Negativity has its place. And downvotes are just as essential as upvotes when it comes to making Deals.Woot a useful place to find deals.

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Too late, we all heard you!

Hmm... you're wanting to take your vote back?

Well, that's a bit tricky. See, we do a lot of stuff with your vote, using it to work out the popularity of what you voted for, compare that to all the other things voted on, tally up our leaderboard, work out your reputation. Someday we'll do a little cartoon showing just how hard your vote is working.

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